The changes I have made in my film

At the start of the semester, I made a storyboard. Looking back now, I have made several minor changes in my storyline.

• BB only sees Boo once before exiting the house
• BB's phone is not parked, instead, it comes to BB.
• BB does not abseil down the mountain. I found that a flying cow is a more interesting alternative. Also, watching an eraser abseil down a mountain isn't the most interesting scene in an animation
• BB does not climb up the mountain. Instead, I found a pig marker similar to the cow one. I thought it would be a good idea if it was well executed.
• There is no foam in the waterfall, only rain from a human coming in and using the tap and splashing the water everywhere. The person is wearing dark clothes, and is meant to resemble a rain cloud.

That's about it! Looks like this is my last blog post for the term :( I've had a great time doing stop motion and I have come up with the best idea for next year!

Inspirations!

My inspirations:



BB = Smiggle ghost eraser. My favourite is the pink tear drop shaped one because it is cute and I like the design. Whilst experimenting in term 2, I realised that the eraser would be hard to animate, as in make the face move and show expressions. So, I decided to make my own BB. Mr Powell perceived BB to be one thing, and I perceived it to be another. In the end, I went with what Mr Powell suggested, BB with a big nose and moustache.



Boo = Smiggle ghost eraser. I used the originial eraser, not a copy I made. I really like the eraser which was Boo. It was different to the design of BB and I thought it'd fit perfectly on the pre-designed bed I had made in class.



BB's room = I thought the idea of a scribble as the wallpaper would look good in comparison to Boo's room which was an organised purple pattern. I made the bed very odd looking with a yellow pillow because I've seen one like it in a magazine and I thought incorporating a similar design into my film would make BB's room look more modern. There is also a rug in BB's room with I just made out of leftover plasticine I had.



Boo's room = Purple is my favourite colour, so I decided to use it as the wallpaper in the first room I made (which turned out to be Boo's!) In this room, there is a window, bookshelf and poster of an unidentified eraser who Boo seems to adore. I found the picture of Boo's crush on the internet and thought it was very cute, and Boo should like it. The empty bookshelf is a symbol of no knowledge of the human world. Humans are avoided by all erasers and other useful objects for purposes of keeping their world a secret, for erasers and other 'inanimate' objects are wise enough to know that there would be terrible exploitations if ever humans encountered BB's actions. The window is sea view, to show the beach- the location BB wants to get to.

Phone car = my experimentations with stop motion (I made a video with Meghna about BB and the phone) so I decided to use one of my old phones. This fits in with the 'inanimate objects come to life' theme.

General story line = I was brushing my teeth one night and came up with the idea. I thought that an epic journey from the top of a chair in the corner of my bathroom till the sink on the other side could work. I set up the chair, made the house and visualised the idea. I had pictured it and estimated that it would be around 1:30 or so. The storyline is also based on a true story. It was an event that had once occurred to me. I, personally, was getting ready to go to see a movie with my sister. She took forever to get ready! We got through many traffic lights and we finally came to the cinemas after we got snacks. The tickets were sold out and it was the last session of the day. Me and my sister were really sad that this event happened so we just went home.

Flying cow and pig: When I tried to make BB abseil down the chair and up the counter, it didn't work! BB kept falling off the string, leaving marks on the chair and sliding down... so I had no idea what to do. I was cleaning my desk and found these markers that I got when I was in grade one! (They still work, talk about quality!) I thought that they could be the solution to my dilemma and decided to make wings, attach them to string and make them 'fly' down. This idea was executed successfully (except for one part where you can see the string...)

Bendy man: Similar story to pig and cow, found him sitting on my desk

Bendy pencil: See above

Pacman!

Part of my soundtrack for my movie is (techno) pacman.

So, I decided to do some research and see what amazing stopmotion they have done




Amazing! It would not have taken too long to do though. However, it does look fantastic and a lot of work has obviously been put into this project. It made me laugh and I thought the idea was fantastic and well developed into stopmotion. I like the use of humans to do this sort of stopmotion, because it looks original and incredible!

The final

My film is finally complete! All I have to do now is submit it. My film is due by the end of this lesson, so I am on track. I fnished my soundtrack last night and the voices are complete. I will upload the film once I change the credita (for privacy purposes)

Dilemma

My file went corrupt. What does this mean? All my work for the past lesson does not work anymore. It didn't save properly because I was forced to shut down my laptop. My solution to this problem is to borrow out a laptop on Wednesday night. I need to record the voice of BB again, and edit the soundrack. This came as a very devastating surprise, and with all the stress of other assignments being due and tests occurring, this is not the ideal situation to be in. All I can do now is remain calm, and re-record most of my sound track with my film being due in two days.

My Film

My film is now complete. I am satisfied with it, although I do believe I could have achieve a better film. I like my character, BB. However, I could have filmed better. The camera went very shakey in the part of the film where BB tries to jump onto the sink, but instead, lands back down onto the counter. Then BB goes up the pencil and the camera adjusts back into being not as shakey. Camera work is frustrating because I could not find a good surface to put my camera on without it falling! I refilmed my film... but that still happened! If I were to remake this movie, I would use a lot of blu tak, sticky tape and string to make sure the camera doesn't do what it did. I would also edit the scene where the cow is bringing BB down because the piece of string I used to make the cow 'fly' is visible because of the light. I could have photoshopped it to make the string disappear! The soundtrack... the voice... sounds... strange. I wish Mr Powell did the voice, as when he demonstrated the gibberish sounded really good! I liked the pacman soundtrack, it was exciting and suited my film. However, in the break of the music I didn't know what music to put, so I used my voice, a beat and a synth bass. The bass was consistent throughout the whole film. If I were to redo my soundtrack, I would use a different person to voice BB.

My progress

My assignment is due this Thursday. My progress so far is good, however, I need to complete the soundtrack ASAP!

I have done:

1. Opening and closing credits
2. Opening animation title (animation-ish)
3. Introduction (Stop motion: BB is born)
4. Scene 1 (Stop motion: BB wakes up)
5. Scene 2 (Stop motion: BB asks if Boo wants to go to the 'beach')
6. Scene 3 (Stop motion: BB is back in room, checks backpack)
7. Scene 4 (Stop motion: Checklist of items in BB's backpack)
8. Scene 5 (Stop motion: BB puts on backpack and rolls out of room)
9. Scene 6 (Stop motion: Doors open, BB exits house. Flying cow comes and takes BB down)
10. Scene 7 (Stop motion: After cow leaves, BB is picked up by phone and drives away)
11. Scene 8 (Stop motion: Phone travels)
12. Scene 9 (Stop motion: Phone leaves BB on carpet, BB rolls down carpet, BB is picked up by flying pig)
13. Scene 10 (Stop motion: BB attempts to get up onto sink, after a failed attempt, a bendy man lets down a pencil to help BB get up)
14. Scene 11 (Stop motion: BB is up and starts rolling)
15. Scene 12 + 13 (Stop motion: BB is rolling around perimeter of sink)
16. Scene 14 (Stop motion: BB rolls out towel, then checks the water temperature. BB finds that the temperature is good, then puts on a blue swimming cap. Just as BB is about to jump in, rain starts. BB packs up her belongings and is shown with a miserable look rolling home)
17. Closing credits
18. Sound for opening credits-scene 5, scene 13-closing credits

I have encoutered a problem: composer's block. I need Mr Powell to star in my movie! I want him to be the voice of BB as I had failed miserably! If he chooses to do so, all I need to do is edit the credits at the end and mention that he was a special guest. Using a voice will not only enhance my movie, but also entertain the audience.